Shadows of the Past
by ScarfFace
Summary: Deep in the bowels of the Twilight maze, Rythian finds that his past is coming back to haunt him. Only he feels the need to hide it from Zoey. (Yogscast, Blackrock. Slight Zoethian.)
1. Excuses

"I hate endermen."

Rythian watched from the creeper-shaped window of his castle. He'd merely been walking down his hallway when he'd heard the cries.

Purple dust was everywhere. Rain fell upon the ground as if made of lead, heavy and dense. Zoey would be asleep through all of this. While Rythian got little to no sleep, constantly dashing around the castle, finding new ways to prepare for what he imagined was the coming confrontation with Sjin; Zoey was a deep sleeper. She would exert so much energy over the course of a day by simply being… well… Zoey. She was a wildfire, ducking in and out of her exuberance. Rythian was a steady river.

The endermen screamed profusely through the shiny, inky landscape. Just when Rythian would turn to walk back to his alchemy room, his ears would be barraged by yet another grotesque scream. He couldn't help but watch with sick satisfaction as they fell dead to the ground. Enderpearls lay everywhere, glistening from the rainfall, and illuminated by the light of the castle.

Mesmerized as he was, he didn't notice as Zoey crept down the stairs, watching silently in a sleepy stupor from around the hall's corner. Rythian merely stared, repeating once again, as if it was a mantra, "I hate endermen…"

Zoey tried in her daze to walk silently into the kitchen, only to stumble slightly. Rythian jumped and whirled around, katar in hand. He stopped, wide-eyed and blushing slightly when he saw not an intruder, but a sleepy Zoey staring groggily back at him, in contrast to her usual chipper self.

"Why?" she asked.

"W-why what?" he said, sheathing his katar.

"Why doya hate enderman?"

He froze for a moment, still holding the katar at his waist, clutching it tighter.

"I just do."

Zoey sighed, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes, her head tilting a painting as she did.

"Tha's not fair, Rythi."

Rythian sighed, scratching at his mask.

"Life isn't fair."

Zoey groaned, rolling herself off of the wall and into the kitchen, grabbing a bowl of mushroom soup and heading over to the table in her semi-awake trance. For the first time in a while she didn't feel the need to talk through her thoughts out loud. She'd come down in the first place to check up on Barry, as she'd been feeling paranoid as of lately. The guilt of harboring her lab was eating her apart.

She didn't have the energy to argue with Rythian. Just seeing him had made the guilt even more palatable. But she couldn't dwell on it. So instead she ate her stew and stared out the window just as Rythian had… not quite seeing.

* * *

It was much, much later, after a long stretch of hot, dry weather, that it rained again. Unfortunately, Zoey and Rythian found themselves outside, on a scouting mission around Cabertown. They were quite far away from their desert haven, and it would take the whole day for them to take on the trek back.

Rythian threw up the hood of his cloak at the first sight of it, looking abjectly to the sky, and taking an immediate 180 back towards their home. Zoey swiveled around in confusion, looking to see Rythian's retreating figure. She jogged after him, slowing down when slightly ahead of Rythian as to meet his face with curiosity. She walked backwards when addressing him.

"What's wrong?"

"I just want to get back home." He looked up, keeping his pace, and winced slightly as a few drops made contact with his face, "Out of this damned rain."

"Sure but… It's really nice!" She said, doing a little twirl to emphasize the point.

Rythian paused for a moment, "Tee will be missing us." he said, bringing his head back up to meet Zoey's eyes.

"Pfft, Tee'll be fine, Rythi! He's lasted longer. Besides, he's got Ravs with him!" She walked on for a moment, but then blocked Rythian's path, forcing him to stop abruptly. "What's wrong?"

"We've been out here long enough, and this rain is horrible."

Zoey looked towards the sky, observing the lazy, and in no way imposing, drizzle.

"It's not that bad…"

Rythian began to walk again, moving around Zoey as if she wasn't there at all. She matched his rushed pase, following close behind.

"I have some wool and sticks. We could make an umbrella!" She said, "Or- or…"

"Or we could go home, Zoey," Rythian put bluntly, stepping over a fallen log, "You know I hate the rain."

Zoey's first instinct was to blurt out a loud "why". But as Rythian sped up his pace, the word died on her lips, only coming out as a quiet breath. And she followed him. And although the question may have been lots in the respects of conversation, she couldn't help but ask herself that resounding "why?" over and over again.

_Why?_

* * *

It was nearly two weeks later, after some mad exploits with the spacetime-continuum, an incident with an outhouse and a desperate search for chocolate milk in the hopes of powering a certain robotic arm, Zoey, Rythian, and Teep found themselves in a world unknown. They walked through the never-ending, twisted walls of the twilight maze. Zoey was once again lost in her thoughts, even while chattering to Rythian. Her mind was elsewhere.

Rythian was a spiteful, hate-filled man, and she knew this. She had accepted this long ago. But the thing about Rythian was he very rarely hated anything without good reason. He was vengeful for the old world, he hated science because of how unreliable it was, he hated brussel sprouts because he said they tasted terrible. He hated zombies because they were loud and persistant.

Zoey followed Rythian down to another maze level, landing in a small well. They hopped out and continued the trek. Rythian had good reason to hate things. But the fact alone that his hate of rain and endermen had no valid excuse led her mind down several odd series of thought and back again. Each idea crazier than the next, and each being almost instantly discarded as a possibility.

The suspicion was killing her. Friends don't keep secrets… although she wasn't really on to talk… She sighed, watching as Rythian ran right down a branching corridor before her. She followed close behind, checking the rooms he passed quickly in his haste and grabbing and fireflies she came across. She walked by a torch room. Had Rythian been cursed by the endermen to be weakened by rain? Had he been defeated by the Enderbabe before? Was he… no. That one was too stupid.

She turned left, not thinking to look for Rythian or Teep anymore. They were far ahead of her. She continued on, a million "maybe's" floating around her head.

Rythian searched through a chest, grabbing a few items before stalking off to the next. He hadn't felt right since his magic was cut off from him. He felt a sort of emptiness inside… but the longer he stayed in this dimension, the more he could feel that gaping hole being filled with something else, something unsettling, something so wrong… but so familiar. His fears were only met with a feeling that he was forgetting something very important.

He glanced over his shoulder, doing a double take when he realized that Zoey hadn't been following him. He looked to Tee, who merely shrugged in response. Rythian gave a little mutter, turning aroung and beginning to head back through the labyrinth. Past the treasure room, past the torch room, taking a as many different routes as possible, all while crying out her name.

That was when it struck him. A burning sensation raged across his cheek, causing him to clutch at it with his hand. Teep looked around in a panic for any enemies, gun at the ready, having thought that Rythian had been attacked. Still in tremendous pain, and slightly hunched over, Rythian began to sprint, taking a few twists and turns to arrive at the well that the group had landed in. Tee followed close behind, obviously distraught.

Rythian kneeled at the water, pulling off his mask in a panic, cupping water in his shaking hands. As uncomfortable as water was, it was worth attempting to rid himself of this greater agitation. Tee stepped back slightly upon seeing Rythian's face, a reaction which Rythian himself did not notice.

However, when he brought the water to his face, an even stronger burning sensation washed over his cheek. He let out a shocked, although suppressed, cry of pain. He automatically jerked away from the water, bringing a hand to his face. A cold sweat rushed over him, and all he could hear was his heartbeat mixed with his own hushed, panicked swears. He looked around to see Tee, staring wide-eyed back at Rythian. He turned away from the dinosaur in a vain attempt to hide his face. He grabbed at his mask, trying to pull it back up in a panicked daze. In his rush, the mask merely swept between his fingers as he tried again and again to pull it over his face. He began to hyperventilate .

He felt a hand grip his shoulder, and grabbed it with his own sweaty hand, cold as death, only to find the hand was scaled. Teep. He spun to look at the dinosaur, eyes widened and dilated, like a cornered animal. Teep merely looked into Rythian's eyes with a cold, steady gaze. That single look calmed Rythian immensely. Slowly, he took Tee's hand, and pulled himself up. He gently reached up to his mask, and pulled it back over his face, the burning sensation still gripping at his skin.

"D-did you see?" Rythian asked.

Tee merely nodded, a sympathetic, if troubled expression on his face.

"Can I see your sword, Tee?"

The dinosaur stepped back, turning his hip away from Rythian as to protect the sword. Rythain winced and reached for his face once more.

"I won't do anything rash. I just need a mirror."

Teep watched Rythian, taking in the mage's expression carefully before dropping his tense guard. He unsheathed his sword, carefully handing it to Rythian.

Rythian took the sword and turned away from Teep. He raised his fingers to the edge of his mask and slowly pulled it off, careful not to agitate his skin. With great trepidation, he brought the sword up to his face and looked.

From beneath his mask, that is, around his neck, black skin grew, reaching towards his right eye like briar branches clawing their way over soft and yielding soil. The right eye itself, which only recently had been cyan was once again a bright purple. What had probably worried Teep initially was the state of his mouth.

Rythian usually had a deformed mouth, so this he was expecting. While the average human mouth ran a length from pupil to pupil, Rythian's ran a length from one outer corner of his eye to the other. Deep scars marked it's length. Small sharpened teeth occasionally poked over his grotesque lips. All this was normal… for Rythian at least. Instead he found his mouth reaching nearly from ear to ear, drawn in a sharp and terrifying frown.

He grunted a low, "shit", immediately regretting it at the sight of his mouth opening, effectively splitting his face in half. He grimaced, resulting in another hideous expression. Realizing what he should have done in the first place, Rythian held the sword out behind him and felt its weight be lifted by Teep moments later. He didn't need to see any more.

He spoke up, voice tight. "Please, Tee. Zoey can't know."

Tee didn't respond.

In the silence of the maze, with only the occasional pitter patter of water falling to the stone ground, Rythian unwrapped the bandages on his left hand. He took the cloth and gingerly wrapped it around the right side of his head, covering his purple eye. When he finished he slipped his mask back on, having effectively covered everything he needed to hide. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

If what he thought was happening was happening, he didn't have much time.


	2. The Bowels

_Chapter 2_

Zoey had long since realized that Rythian and Teep were nowhere to be seen. She'd traced her way back, following through the bends and twists of the maze to the best of her ability. If she could head back to the entrance of this level maybe she would have an easier time finding Rythian… This was bad. He'd be mad at her. She didn't want Rythian to be mad, not after Barry. If she could fix this herself everything would be fine.

She found herself passing the familiar torch room, and then several chests and fireflies. She was heading back the right way. The gentle tap of her foot against the floor echoed through the hallways and her breath filled the empty spaces in-between. That was, until, she heard Rythian's voice echo through the maze.

"Please, Tee. Zoey can't know."

Silence. Her breath hitched, her pace came to a halt. She resisted the urge to shout out to Rythian. 'Tell me' she'd shout, 'you shouldn't hide things from friends, Rythi'. But the hypocrisy of the statement dawned on her. Not to mention Rythian would be upset. She'd just have to walk over these eggshells again. She'd just have to keep a secret… so Rythian could keep a secret. Yeah. That was it.

Maybe if she ran in and acted like she hadn't heard anything.

And so she did. After a count of ten, Zoey bounded into the room, bright and happy, a bounce in her step. She saw Teep glance over at her with some unrecognizable expression in his eyes.

"Hey Teep! Hi Rythi!" She said, stopping in front of them, "I found some more fireflies!" She held out the handful of bugs as a cat would hold a mouse out to its owner.

She heard Rythian sigh. He turned to face her. Bandages were carefully and generously wrapped around half of his face. He kept his visible eye distant, focused on some invisible object behind her. Her smile faded, but only for a moment. She would ignore it.

"Sorry I lost you for a bit." She continued, "I saw some mushrooms and I-"

Rythian interrupted, "That's alright Zoey. I'm just glad you're back."

He paused.

"Do you- Don't you… never mind." He turned to keep walking, but stopped, sighing.

He was doing that a lot recently.

"You _did_ notice the bandage, right?" He said.

Zoey was sweating a bit now. Maybe she'd played _too_ stupid.

"Uh, yeah. I just figured it was some boring thing you didn't want to talk about that's all." She said, quickly.

Nailed it.

Rythian just scrutinized her for a moment. "Well if you were wondering, it was a minotaur."

"Is it still… there?" She said.

"The minotaur? I took car-"

"No, silly, your eye."

Slightly embarrassed, Rythian touched at the concealed eye, doing his best to ignore the pain. "Yeah, it's fine." He replied, "We should get moving." Rythian turned around quickly, avoiding eye contact the whole time. He stalked off down a random corridor, too distressed to bother checking if Zoey was even following him, regardless of what had just happened.

She did follow, though. She wouldn't want the same thing to happen again. Regardless of her feigned innocence she was still very much intrigued at what Rythian could be hiding. Maybe he had been injured my a minotaur, but what was there to hide, then? Previously he'd been very guarded and protective of his mask…

At this moment Zoey realized. This was yet another thing that Rythian had never properly excused: his mask. It had always been "it serves a purpose". That had always been his excuse (or lack thereof). But now he was hiding even more of his face. And Teep, evidently, had seen something. Not that she could really ask the mute dinosaur to just explain everything. She began to hum a song as she walked. _Do you want to craft a golem-_

She'd only really gotten to know Rythian later in his life. She didn't know where he came from or even…

"Hey Rythi?"

"Hm?"

"How old are you?"

He paused for a moment, as if remembering, "Thirty."

"Wow, I thought we were the same age."

"Hm."

At least he was telling the truth about that, otherwise she'd go off thinking he was a vampire or something! That'd just be silly. Maybe whatever he'd been hiding under that mask… got larger? If it was just scars he wouldn't have gotten new ones so quick, and if he'd just covered up an injury she'd be able to see at least a bit of blood, right?

She went back to humming.

* * *

The next layer of the maze was even darker. All the fireflies that Zoey had gathered ended up saving them more than a few times. Minotaurs were around every corner, Maze slimes would occasionally drip from the ceiling in an attempt to engulf one of the three.

At times it felt as if the maze was changing around them. They would occasionally follow their way back the way they came only to find that all was not as they remembered it. After nearly losing Teep, Rythian had tied the three of them together with a length of vine from the walls. Strange mushrooms sprouted up in random areas, none of which Zoey could understand, but all of which fascinated her extremely.

Rythian, personally, was concerned of the endermen spawning in the lower levels of the maze. They'd infected even the crevices of this world and it enraged Rythian to no end. Either that or they were… following him? Possibly… Maybe both. He'd have to figure that out or… no. Zoey was more important now. He wouldn't lose her again.

Zoey was busy babbling about the types of mushrooms that lived here. Said she would have taken some back with her if they could even give consent… but there was a language barrier it seemed, and Zoey refused to take any fungal prisoners.

Meanwhile the items they found in chests weren't varying a lot. They would find an occasional golden apple, but they were very rare. Everything else was just more ironwood, more fireflies, nothing really interesting. Zoey had joked that the mushrooms might have already taken all the good stuff.

Their endless march filled the maze with an endless, repetitive noise. Zoey was currently staring into a ball of plasma in her robotic hand.

"It's so pretty." She said, eyes gleaming in the light of the plasma.

"Careful with that Zoey, you'll hurt your eyes.. or Teep… or me, for that matter." Rythian said.

Zoey put her human hand on her hip, rolling her head over to look at Rythian. "Pfft. Rythian, I will have you know I am a professional Doctor-scientist. I know what I'm doing."

The plasma blasted out of her hand and exploded on the ceiling above, shaking the bricks and raining small pieces of rubble onto the group. Zoey looked over to her empty hand in confusion before smirking.

"See! Nothing bad happened!"

Rythian was about to interrupt when a hellish moo broke through the maze, echoing from the direction they were heading in. The three turned, weapons ready. To their surprise, nothing came. They waited and waited, but nothing showed up. Rythian let out a held breath, sheathing his sapphire sword when a shock of pain ran across his left shoulder, slowly trickling down towards his elbow. He grit his teeth, in too much pain to think of how sharp those teeth were, or how wide his mouth was by now… This would be the end of him. If Zoey saw…

His thoughts halted under Zoey's inquisitive stare. She wouldn't see.

He rolled down the sleeves of his coat to cover both his arms. He'd have to do something before it reached his hand. He'd taken the bandages from his left hand to cover his face… and his right hand would go too… In a moment of panic he realized that he might not have the cloth to cover his whole body. And what about when the left side of his face turned on him? He couldn't cover _both_ eyes. he could always wrap his scarf around his head, but the eyes…

"Rythian." Zoey said. Rythian didn't respond.

"Rythian. Hey!" She poked his arm, earning a flinch from Rythian and bolting him away from his thoughts.

"What's with the sleeves?"

Robotically, he replied, "It's cold."

"That's odd, Rythi, it feels pretty warm down here… There's lava everywhere too…"

Rythian's one visible eye winced, "Yeah, well, I feel pretty cold _personally_."

Zoey wasn't convinced, not at all. He was hiding something. He was hiding… more body parts! What was going on? Was something spreading? He seemed to be in pain. Should she…

"Are you feeling okay Rythian?"

"Y-yeah, peachy."

She reached towards his arm, "Are you surrreeee…"

Rythian jerked away, pulling his arms behind him, "Peachy."

"Okay then. I don't think we should fight more monsters if you're injured or anything, Rythi. You're really off today."

"Hm." He started walking again, limping slightly on his left leg, but trying hard not to show it. He could feel it spreading. His joints would constantly pop as they walked. After a length of hallway which seemed to go on for an eternity, he felt himself leaning slightly. It was odd… Oh.

His left leg was longer than the right one.

Instinctively, he glanced over at Zoey, who was minding her own business, looking at the mushrooms and chests and torch rooms they passed. His left hand still reached mid-thigh… about the same place as it normally would. Great. His arm was growing too. With slight hesitation, he glanced at his hand, which he'd been hiding deep within his sleeve. Black. Sharp. Great. He clenched it back into the inside of his sleeve. All this made him sick to his stomach.

How long had they been down there? Hours? Days? Weeks? And of course any stretch of time here could correlate differently in regards to the outside world. The Overworld and the Twilight could very well have synchronous time streams, or a year could have passed in the span of a day. He had to get out of this dimension. He had to fix this before everything fell to shit.

He felt the pain creep through his chest, to the right side of his body. Zoey rounded a corner, blasting at a minotaur with her arm, only angering it further. Teep shot it through the head.

They rounded another corner. Except, instead of being met with another endless hallway, they were met with the wooden bars of a large cage.

"I think we've dug too deep, Rythian." Zoey said in a hushed voice.

And then, from somewhere deep within the cage, they heard a terrifying and hearty moo.


End file.
